Roxy was already waiting impatiently at their usual lunch table when Carter entered the cafeteria. He saw her from across the room, and noticed the tell-tale signs that his best friend was nervous and excited. She had her legs crossed, her foot bobbing up and down as she chewed on the edges of her manicured fingers. Carter weaved through the lunch tables, making his way to the small round table in the corner, which he and Roxy spent their lunches every day.
Carter felt eyes on him, so without thinking he looked around as he walked. At a table a few over from him and Roxy's sat three guys.
William, Jake and Alex.
William and Jake were talking amongst themselves, while Alex had his eyes trained on Carter. Even when their gazes met he didn't look away, causing Carter to furrow his eyebrows and be the one who looked away. Carter was used to stares from Alex but there was something about the look in Alex's eye that looked something like worry, like a tiny bit of fear that had crept onto his face when the boy wasn't looking. Why would Alex be worrying about him?
He finally made it to his table, and he plopped down on the seat, still feeling Alex's eyes on him even though he was very purposefully not facing him.
"You are going to ruin your nails if you keep doing that."
"Oh shh," Roxy's hands left her mouth and landed in her lap where she played with her ring nervously.
"Since when are you nervous about a guy?"
"Since this guy is the perfect guy!" she told him. She bit at her bottom lip. "And I am not entirely sure he speaks a whole lot of English."
Carter stifled a laugh. "I'm sure he speaks English, Archer spoke English just fine. Strong accent, but quite understandable."
Roxy raised an eyebrow, "Tell me again why you aren't interested in Archer?"
Carter absentmindedly turned his head around to where Alex sat with his friends.
"Carter." Roxy's voice made him turn back to face her. "You can't stay hung up on your drug dealing moron of an ex-boyfriend."
"He's not a drug dealer."
"Who cares? That's no way to live your life. You are a senior, and you only get to do this once. We should be putting ourselves out there and living our best lives!"
"As much as I want to, I'm just not sure if I'm ready."
Roxy placed a comforting hand on her best friends arm. Carter thought she was going to say something philosophical and worldly, but she just squeezed his arm and nodded. Even though she was crazy and sometimes difficult to deal with, Carter would always love this girl like a sister, just because of moments like this.
The moment, however, was short lived, as a few seconds later her hand went from Carter's arm to the air where she waved it around. Carter took a deep breath, preparing himself to not only make small talk where he would have to listen carefully to not miss words in the mess of their accents, but also make Roxy look good in front of Cole, a guy who he hadn't even spoken a word to.
"How is your day going?" Archer asked, the question directed to Carter, as he and Cole sat down at the table.
"Good, how's yours? How do you like the classes here?"
"Yeah, they are good, it is definitely different to what we have at home."
Archer turned to Cole, as if asking him for his opinion. Cole had been staring off at the other tables, so Archer had to cough under his breath to get his attention.
"Yes, the classes are good." Cole spoke in an accent much thicker than Archer, and his words were a bit strange, the pronunciation not as spot on as someone with more experience in the language.
Carter turned to Roxy, "So, he does speak English," he mouthed to her, and the girl kicked his leg under the table.
"Do you like art Cole?" Carter asked, suddenly remembering his promise to Roxy. At least mentioning art made Roxy look worldly and mature, even though sometimes she could be far from it. Roxy did love art, almost as much as she loved getting her nails done and internet stalking famous people. Art seemed to be the best option for conversation that wouldn't end up in Carter getting a kick under the table by his best friends pointy shoes.
The girl's eyes lit up as she waited for Cole's answer.
"Yes," he said matter-of-factly.
"Well, Roxy here," he put a hand on her arm for a second, 'is a fantastic artist. Why don't you two talk about art?'
Job done. Carter was quite proud to have met the friendship minimum requirements for this situation.
"Subtle," Roxy mouthed to her friend before launching into an in depth conversation with Cole about art.
"Those two seem to be hitting it off," Archer murmured, scooting over on the seat to get closer to Carter.
Carter quickly looked at the two to make sure that they couldn't hear him talk, and he was quite satisfied. By the look on Roxy's face there could have probably been bombs going off around her and she would still be looking at Cole all dreamy-eyed and hanging on his every word, even though he only spoke in sentences of two or three words. She was eating up every syllable like it was candy, her eyes widening when he spoke and she would bite her lip absentmindedly every now and then as they exchanged words that made Cole's usually emotionless face turn into a slight grin.
"Between you and me," Carter spoke low to Archer, just in case, "she is pretty much in love with your friend. If he isn't into her then shits going to hit the fan."
Archer laughed, "I have never heard of that saying before, but I wouldn't worry if I was you. Cole is a very serious person, and talking to her is the first time I have seen him smile in a while."
That made Carter smile, maybe Roxy's love for this guy wasn't a lost cause after all.
"Why did you and Cole move here?" Carter asked.
Archer leant forwards, a slight smile on his lips. "Let's talk about me later, why don't you tell me more about yourself?"
"I'm pretty boring." Carter shrugged.
"I highly doubt that, you seem pretty interesting to me."
Carter blushed, biting at his lip as a smile tried to form on his lips. Maybe this guy wasn't so bad after all.
<><><><<><><><><>
Alex couldn't stop staring. He had to watch. He had to make sure that they weren't going to hurt Carter. They had no reason to hurt him, they shouldn't hurt him, but all that Alex's mind knew was that dangerous people were with Carter and Roxy, while he sat twenty feet away, unable to help them.
He told himself to calm down, to take a few breaths, but every time he did that he would unconsciously single out their voices across the room or catch their scent, and he would get worked up again.
He needed to get these guys out of his life, and out of his school.
"Dude, are you even listening to us?"
Alex's head whipped back around as he realised that he hadn't been paying attention to William and Jake who were now both looking at him with curious expressions.
"What did you take dude? The stuff I gave you last week was good, this shouldn't be happening." Jake looked his friend up and down.
"Are you alright Alex?" William asked.
"Yeah, I'm just not feeling too great. It's not the drugs, I think I might be getting the flu or something," he lied, but it wasn't like he could tell them that he was getting antsy about seeing his ex-boyfriend who he secretly had feelings for getting all up close and personal with a dangerous werewolf. Yeah, cause that would go down well.
"Oh okay," Jake nodded, 'so as I was saying, this guy comes out of nowhere and I..."
Alex tuned the conversation out again, tuning his ears to hear what was going on at the other table. Thank-god for werewolf hearing, right?
Roxy was telling Cole something about art being shown in some museum. He turned his head slightly, now being able to catch what Carter and Archer were saying.
Alex did not like the way that Archer had been looking at Carter that morning and the knowing and smug expression he had on his face when he found out that they were ex's was enough to make Alex's hand curl up, ready to punch him square in the jaw.
Archer was now complimenting Carter. Alex couldn't handle that, danger was one thing, flirting was another. Carter wasn't some play thing that Archer could just use for the short time he was here.
Alex's head whipped around and a slight growl left his lips. Archer was leaning into Carter, whispering something that even Alex couldn't hear into his ear. Whatever he said made Carter laugh, he leant back with a smile on his face before biting at his lip.
Archer looked happy with himself at Carters reaction to whatever he said.
Carter liked this guy. That was the heartbreaking part.
Alex knew Carter more than he knew himself, and he could see that Carter liked this guy. He saw it in the way that he bit at his lip as his plump lips turned up into a smile. He saw it in the way that he seemed to be oblivious to everything else going on around him. That was the way he used to act when he was with Alex, the world could have gone to chaos around them and the boy would have had no clue.
He didn't care that he was the one who broke it off, all he knew was that this hurt. It was like being stabbed in his chest, a physical pain that hadn't felt this bad since the days after they broke up.
"Alex?"
"Yeah?" Alex asked, his eyes not leaving the two guys.
"Why are you looking at them? What's going on?" Jake asked.
Alex ignored the question. "I'll be back."
He wasn't thinking as he harshly stood up from the table. He strode across the room in harsh and hurried steps, a growl leaving his lips as he approached the table.
Roxy saw him first, her eyes widening as she gasped quietly. Archer and Carter had been lost in conversation, so they didn't notice Alex approaching until Roxy tapped Carter hard in the arm, nodding towards Alex. By the time he reached the table it seemed that not only the four people at the table were looking at him, but the entire cafeteria seemed to have stopped, everyone's gaze focussed on them.
Alex wasn't focused on anyone but Carter, who was looking up at him with wide, confused eyes, his mouth open slightly. Alex could almost see the cogs turn in Carters head as he tried to work out what was going on.
Alex met his gaze, trying to keep the plethora or emotions inside of him as he spoke the first words to Carter in months.
"Can I talk to you outside? Now."
The words were harsh and arduous, the question being more of a demand than anything else, yet Carter nodded with only slight hesitation.